Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a sheet conveying apparatus for conveying a sheet, a method for detaching a rotation member unit from the sheet conveying apparatus, and an image forming apparatus provided with the sheet conveying apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, configurations which include sheet conveying apparatuses for conveying sheets stored in sheet feeding cassettes to image forming units and forming images on sheets conveyed by the sheet conveying apparatuses are known as electrophotographic method type image forming apparatuses and the like. Some of these sheet conveying apparatuses include feeding rollers for feeding sheets stored in the sheet feeding cassettes and conveyance rollers for conveying the sheets fed from the feeding rollers to the image forming units. The feeding rollers and the conveyance rollers convey sheets using frictional force between surfaces of the rollers and surfaces of the sheets stored in the sheet feeding cassettes, and the roller surfaces wear down little by little by friction against the sheets, so that the rollers need to be replaced periodically.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2016-11213 describes a configuration of a sheet conveying apparatus in which a feeding roller and a conveyance roller are unitized as a rotation member unit which can be replaced by a user and a service person (hereinbelow, referred to as a user). The rotation member unit is rotatably supported on one end side by a slide shaft urged toward the rotation member unit and rotatably supported on another end side across the rotation member unit by a drive shaft provided on an opposite side of the slide shaft. According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2016-11213, the rotation member unit is replaced by following operations.
First, a user slides and moves the rotation member unit to a direction from the drive shaft to the slide shaft against an urging force of the slide shaft and releases engagement between the drive shaft and the rotation member unit. Subsequently, the user moves the rotation member unit to a direction for releasing the engagement with the slide shaft and thus can detach the rotation member unit from the sheet conveying apparatus. When the rotation member unit is attached to the sheet conveying apparatus, first, a user inserts one end side of the rotation member unit into the slide shaft, thus engages the slide shaft with the rotation member unit, and moves the rotation member unit against the urging force of the slide shaft. In this state, the user adjusts another end side of the rotation member unit to a position capable of engaging with the drive shaft and moves the rotation member unit to a direction to which the urging force of the slide shaft is applied after the position of the rotation member unit is adjusted. Accordingly, the rotation member unit engages with the drive shaft and is attached to the sheet conveying apparatus.
According to the configuration described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2016-11213, when the rotation member unit is replaced in the sheet conveying apparatus, a user attaches and detaches the rotation member unit in a state of holding the rotation member unit against the urging force of the slide shaft. The configuration according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2016-11213 has an attaching/detaching property.